Ivingswood Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to belong to the school.

They are happy here and feel safe. Pupils talk warmly about their teachers. They like that staff are always on hand should they have any worries or concerns.

Relationships are positive and warm.

Pupils are really pleased with the recently improved lunchtime outdoor equipment and activities on offer. Most pupils behave sensibly and try their best in lessons.

They respond well to the school's expectations for them to 'be ready, respectful and safe'. Pupils who need support to manage their emotions are supported kindly and sensitively.

The school's extra-curricular clubs contribute well to pupils' enjoy...ment and experience of school.

From yoga to sporting clubs, pupils say that there is something for everyone. Older pupils enjoy having extra responsibilities, including being peer mentors to some younger pupils. Visits to London and the pantomime hold lasting memories for many pupils.

The school aspires for all pupils to achieve well and to enjoy learning. Despite this ambition, pupils do not currently benefit from a good-quality education. This is because of weaknesses in the curriculum and teaching.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do not always get the support they need.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school has been through a turbulent period, including changes of leadership and staff. However, throughout this time the school has maintained its focus on improving all aspects of its work.

This has included making significant improvements to pupils' behaviour and attitudes to learning. The school has acted decisively to address the low outcomes in key stage 2 published outcomes. Focused professional development and a stronger approach to reading and mathematics have led to improvements in current pupils' achievement.

However, while improved, pupils are not achieving consistently well. This is in part due to a legacy of historic underachievement and gaps in pupils' knowledge.

The school has worked hard to reshape the curriculum so that it meets pupils' needs and interests.

It is broad, suitably ambitious and well sequenced. Nevertheless, there is considerable scope to refine the curriculum and approaches in the early years. The school has not considered carefully enough how the curriculum builds towards the early learning goals.

Consequently, during independent learning times, activities and teaching are not targeted well enough on supporting children to achieve their next learning steps. Across the school, sometimes activities do not focus precisely enough on what the school intends pupils to learn. This can divert pupils' attention to the activity rather than the knowledge they need to learn and remember.

Improvements to the mathematics curriculum have been successful. In the early years, children learn to count and recognise numbers and learn about shapes. The increased focus on fluency, problem-solving and reasoning helps pupils to understand key concepts, and to remember and apply mathematical knowledge.

The school's approach to phonics is well considered. Sound awareness in Nursery paves the way for phonics teaching in Reception. Children get off to a secure start in learning to read.

Staff routinely identify and address gaps in pupils' knowledge. The success of the reading programme is seen in pupils' strong achievement in the 2024 Year 1 phonics screening check. However, there are some weaknesses in the school's approach to teaching writing.

Currently, the school does not give sufficient priority to handwriting and basic punctuation. As a result, pupils are not developing secure enough foundations to enable them to write fluently and accurately.

Across the school, there are inconsistencies in the support for pupils with SEND.

Although pupils' needs are accurately identified and assessed, the curriculum and teaching are not consistently adapted well enough to meet some pupils' needs. As a result, some pupils with SEND are not achieving the best possible outcomes.

The school's sharp focus on improving attendance is leading to some improvement.

Staff are relentless in supporting families and getting to the root of any issues. Leaders know that they need to continue this work so that the momentum of improvement continues. Nevertheless, the school's analysis of attendance and behaviour is not as precise as it needs to be to inform its strategic understanding and planning.

Through the curriculum, pupils learn about different religions and cultures and the values of respect and tolerance. They learn about significant figures who have championed equality and brought about lasting changes to society. Enrichment and community events broaden pupils' horizons and foster a sense of belonging.

Governance roles and responsibilities are understood and fulfilled. The trust and the local academy committee work closely together. Systems for information-sharing and accountability are sound.

The trust is considerate of staff and leaders' well-being, rightly considering workload when making changes and improvements to the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Teaching approaches and the curriculum are not consistently adapted well enough to meet the needs of pupils with SEND, particularly pupils with very significant needs.

This means that some pupils with SEND are not achieving well enough. The trust must ensure that staff have the expertise they need to adapt learning to fully meet pupils' diverse needs. The school's approach to the teaching of writing is not fully effective.

Too little focus is given to securing handwriting and sentence construction. Gaps in pupils' knowledge are not being systematically addressed. This means that children in early years and pupils in key stage 1 are not securing this important knowledge, and weaknesses in their writing persist into key stage 2.

The trust must take effective action to strengthen the school's approaches to the teaching of writing. ? In the early years, the school has not yet identified clearly enough the knowledge children need to learn as they progress through the curriculum towards the early learning goals. This means that staff are not clear enough about children's next learning steps when they are planning activities and guiding and teaching children.

As a result, children are not building well enough on what they already know. The trust needs to strengthen the school's early years curriculum and ensure that it is implemented consistently well. ? Learning activities are sometimes not well matched to what teachers intend pupils to learn.

As a result, pupils are not building their knowledge securely. The trust should ensure that learning activities are more consistently and carefully designed to maximise pupils' learning and improve achievement. ? The school's strategic analysis of some aspects of its work, such as attendance and behaviour, is not sufficiently robust or precise.

This means that the school does not have a clear enough strategic view of trends over time to inform its decision-making. Additionally, this limits the information the trust has to support its accountability processes. The trust needs to strengthen this aspect of its work.